Driving assistance device utilizing pedestrian-wearable device data for calculating pedestrian position within a road crossing

Abstract

A vehicle control device includes a first prediction unit that predicts a reaching time for a vehicle to reach a cross point in front of the vehicle in a case where a pedestrian who crosses the cross point is detected based on information transmitted from a wearable device attached to the pedestrian, a second prediction unit that predicts a crossing time for the pedestrian to complete crossing the cross point based on information for specifying a walking speed acquired from the wearable device, an estimation unit that estimates whether or not the pedestrian is able to safely cross the cross point based on the predicted reaching time and the predicted crossing time, and an execution controller that executes a safe driving assistance control with respect to the vehicle in a case where the estimation unit estimates that the pedestrian is not able to safely cross the cross point.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A vehicle control device that controls a vehicle configured to acquire various information including information for specifying a walking speed transmitted from a wearable device attached to a pedestrian, the vehicle control device comprising a central processing unit configured to:
 predict a reaching time for the vehicle to reach a cross point in front of the vehicle or a reaching point in time when the vehicle reaches the cross point in a case where the pedestrian who crosses the cross point is detected based on the information transmitted from the wearable device; 
 predict a crossing time for the pedestrian to complete crossing the cross point or a crossing point in time when the pedestrian completes crossing the cross point based on the information for specifying the walking speed acquired from the wearable device; 
 estimate whether or not the pedestrian is able to safely cross the cross point by comparing the predicted reaching time with the predicted crossing time plus a margin; and 
 execute a safe driving assistance control of assisting safe driving with respect to the vehicle in a case where the central processing unit estimates that the pedestrian is not able to safely cross the cross point; 
 wherein when health management data acquired from a health management application used by the pedestrian on the wearable device indicates that the pedestrian's health condition is impaired making it difficult to walk, the central processing unit increases the margin for the pedestrian compared to other cases and estimates whether the pedestrian may cross the cross point safely. 
 
     
     
       2. The vehicle control device according to  claim 1 , wherein the central processing unit is configured to detect the pedestrian who crosses the cross point based on positional information of the wearable device transmitted from the wearable device, and positional information of the vehicle. 
     
     
       3. The vehicle control device according to  claim 1 , wherein the central processing unit is configured to estimate whether or not the pedestrian is able to safely cross the cross point based on the health management data indicating a health state of the pedestrian acquired from the health management application used by the pedestrian on the wearable device. 
     
     
       4. The vehicle control device according to  claim 3 , wherein the central processing unit is configured to issue warning to the pedestrian by a warning method in accordance with the health state of the pedestrian as a part of the safe driving assistance control. 
     
     
       5. The vehicle control device according to  claim 1 , wherein the central processing unit is configured to issue warning to the pedestrian by executing a light distribution control of light generated from the vehicle as a part of the safe driving assistance control. 
     
     
       6. The vehicle control device according to  claim 1 , wherein the central processing unit is configured to issue warning to a driver by executing an image control of displaying an image portion related to the pedestrian to be relatively conspicuous on an image seen from the driver in the vehicle as a part of the safe driving assistance control.